The Damaging Impact of the Relentless Pace of Automation

MIT Technology Review: “The White House report points in particular to the current wave of AI, which it describes as having begun around 2010. That’s when advances in machine learning and the increasing availability of big data and enhanced computation power began providing computers with unprecedented capabilities such as the ability to accurately recognize images. The report says greater deployment of AI and automation could boost economic growth by creating new types of jobs and improving efficiency in many businesses. But it also points to the negative effects: job destruction and related increases in income inequality. For now at least, ‘less educated workers are more likely to be replaced by automation than highly educated ones.’ The report notes that so far automation has displaced few higher-skill workers, but it adds: ‘The skills in which humans have maintained a comparative advantage are likely to erode over time as AI and new technologies become more sophisticated.'”

“The problem is that the United States has been particularly bad over the last few decades at helping people who’ve lost out during periods of technological change. Their social, educational, and financial problems have been largely ignored, at least by the federal government. According to the White House report, the U.S. spends around 0.1 percent of its GDP on programs designed to help people deal with changes in the workplace—far less than other developed economies. And this funding has declined over the last 30 years.”